Home Free

Home Free is an a cappella country group that found international success in 2013 after being crowned the Season Four winners on the popular television vocal competition The Sing-Off. They released their Billboard-charting major-label debut, Crazy Life, in 2014. The group continued to find favor on both the country and mainstream charts with subsequent efforts like Dive Bar Saints (2019), Land of the Free (2021), and So Long Dixie (2022), the latter of which was their first to also feature minimal instrumental backing.
Formed in 2000 in Mankato, Minnesota by brothers Chris and Adam Rupp, Matt Atwood, Darren Scruggs, and Dan Lemke, most of whom were still in their teens, the group went from a hobby to a full-time gig in 2007 with the release of their debut album, From the Top. During this time, the group was led by the Rupp brothers and Atwood, with a rotating cast of members cycling through. They issued four more albums — 2009′s Kickin' It Old School, 2010′s Christmas, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and 2012′s Live from the Road — before joining Season Four of The Sing-Off in 2013. After winning with their arrangement of Hunter Hayes’ “I Want Crazy,” they inked a deal with Sony. Home Free’s success on The Sing-Off helped their 2014 major-label debut, Crazy Life, rise to number eight on the Top Country Albums chart, and before the year was out, they issued an album of songs for the holidays, Full of Cheer.
Home Free’s third album for Columbia, Country Evolution, was released in September 2015 and included guest appearances by Charlie Daniels, the Oak Ridge Boys, and Taylor Davis. A fourth album, Timeless, appeared in September 2017, debuting at three on the country chart. Two years later, Dive Bar Saints found Home Free primarily concentrating on original material. In 2020, the group issued a new holiday collection, Warmest Winter, that featured a set of yuletide favorites and a handful of self-penned songs. In 2021 the group released Land of the Free, a collection of patriotic songs that included “America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee),” “Travelin’ Soldier,” and “God Bless the U.S.A,” the latter of which featured Lee Greenwood and the United States Air Force Band. Sounds of Lockdown, a collection of songs recorded while the group was laying low during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, arrived in July of the following year. For their next release, Home Free tried a new approach. Released in November 2022, So Long Dixie consisted entirely of original material with several of the songs featuring instrumental backing. ~ James Christopher Monger